On this day: March 20

2010: The first full face transplant is performed by a team of 30 surgeons at Vall D'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, on a man injured in a shooting accident. He had been left unable to breathe, swallow or talk properly after an accident five years earlier and was considered for the transplant after nine previous operations failed.

1997: Boxer Tony Zale, a two-time world middleweight champion, dies at the age of 83. Zale, who was named to Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, is best remembered for his three brutal and punishing bouts over a 21-month period with Rocky Graziano for the middleweight crown. Zale retained his title in the first fight in 1946, lost it to Graziano the following year and then recaptured it with a third-round knockout in 1948.

1996: In Los Angeles, brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder in the shotgun killings of their parents. They each were sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on July 2, 1996.

1995: The Beatles song, "Baby It's You," with the late John Lennon as lead singer, is released as a single. The live version of the song, originally released as part of the 1994 double album "Live at the BBC," was the first single from the band in nearly 20 years. It reached No. 7 in the UK and No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1995: In Tokyo, 13 people are killed and more than 1,000 others are sickened when packages containing the nerve gas sarin are released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo. Six of the attack's perpetrators were sentenced to death and three more received life sentences.

1992: The erotic thriller "Basic Instinct," starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, premieres in theaters. Despite controversy due to its overt sexuality and graphic depiction of violence, it became one of the most financially successful movies of the 1990s, grossing $352 million worldwide.

1991: Eric Clapton's 4-year-old son Conor dies after falling from the 53rd-floor window of his mother's friend's New York City apartment. Clapton's song "Tears In Heaven" is about Conor and would earn Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Male Vocal Performance in 1993.

1987: The Food and Drug Administration approves AZT, the first anti-AIDS drug. Prescribed under the name Retrovir, AZT was the first breakthrough in AIDS therapy, significantly reducing the replication of the virus in patients and leading to clinical and immunologic improvements.

1976: Patricia Hearst is convicted of armed robbery for her role in the hold up of a San Francisco bank. Hearst had been kidnapped in February 1974 by the leftist group Symbionese Liberation Army and later announced she was joining the group of her own free will. She was sentenced to seven years in prison, although her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter and she was released in February 1979. In 2001, she received a full pardon from President Bill Clinton.

1973: Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame 11 weeks after his death in a Dec. 31, 1972, plane crash off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. Clemente's plane had just taken off on a relief mission to earthquake victims in Nicaragua when it crashed. Clemente, who won two World Series titles during his 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was the 1966 National League MVP, a 15-time All-Star, a 12-time Gold Glove winner, and a member of the 3,000 hit club.

1971: Janis Joplin's version of "Me and Bobby McGee" hits No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Released three months after her death, the song was Joplin's lone chart-topper and only the second posthumous No. 1 single in U.S. chart history after Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."

1969: Beatle John Lennon marries avant-garde artist Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. They are seen here in the Netherlands a little more than a week after their wedding.

1963: Model and actress Kathy Ireland, who rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s as a swimsuit model who appeared in 13 consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, is born in Glendale, California. Ireland has also appeared in movies such as "Mr. Destiny," "Necessary Roughness" and "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1." Since 1993, she has also served as CEO and chief designer of her brand product marketing firm, kathy ireland Worldwide, whose product line includes furniture, lighting, flooring, windows, jewelry, bridal gowns and more.

1958: Actress Holly Hunter, best known for her roles in movies like "Raising Arizona," "Broadcast News," "The Firm," "The Piano" and "Thirteen," is born in Conyers, Georgia. Hunter won the Academy Award for Best Actress for "The Piano" in 1994 and was also nominated for her performances in "Broadcast News," "The Firm" and "Thirteen."

1957: Film director Spike Lee, best known for movies such as "Do the Right Thing," "Jungle Fever," "Malcolm X" and "He Got Game," is born Shelton Jackson Lee in Atlanta, Georgia.

1950: Actor William Hurt, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for 1985's "Kiss of the Spider Woman," is born in Washington, D.C. He's also earned Oscar nominations for his roles in "Children of a Lesser God," "Broadcast News" and "A History of Violence," and is also known for movies such as "Body Heat," "The Big Chill" and "The Accidental Tourist."

1948: Hall of Fame hockey player Bobby Orr, who revolutionized the position of defenseman during his 12 years in the NHL, is born in Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada. Orr played 10 years for the Boston Bruins, winning the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972, before playing his final two years with the Chicago Black Hawks. He holds the record for most points and assists in a single season by a defenseman. He also won a record eight consecutive Norris Trophies as the NHL's best defenseman and three consecutive Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player.

1945: Hall of Fame basketball coach Pat Riley, who led the Los Angeles Lakers to four NBA titles in the 1980s and won another in 2006 with the Miami Heat, is born in Rome, New York. Riley also played in the NBA with the San Diego Rockets, Lakers and Phoenix Suns, helping the Lakers to a NBA championship as a player in 1972. A two-sport star while in college at the University of Kentucky, he was also named the SEC Player of the Year his junior year and was drafted in both the NBA and NFL.

1937: Actor and country singer Jerry Reed, whose best known songs include "Guitar Man," "When You're Hot, You're Hot," "East Bound and Down" and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)," is born Jerry Reed Hubbard in Atlanta, Georgia. Reed also appeared in films such as "Gator," all three of the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies and "Stroker Ace." He died of complications from emphysema at age 71 on Sept. 1, 2008.

1931: Actor Hal Linden, best known as the titular character of the television sitcom "Barney Miller," is born in New York City. Linden, who began his career as a big band musician and singer in the 1950s, also found success on Broadway, appearing in the musical "Bells Are Ringing" and winning a Best Actor Tony Award in 1971 for his portrayal of Mayer Rothschild in the musical "The Rothschilds."

1928: Actor Fred Rogers, better known simply as Mister Rogers from his long-running show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," is born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He died of stomach cancer at age 74 on Feb. 27, 2003.

1922: Comedian, actor and director Carl Reiner is born in The Bronx, New York. Reiner got his start on Broadway and formed a comedy duo with Mel Brooks. He developed the sitcom that would become "The Dick Van Dyke Show," writing many episodes and appearing occasionally as temperamental talk show host Alan Brady. He acted in movies such as "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming," "Where's Poppa?," "Oh, God!" and "The Jerk," the last three which he also directed. He's also directed movies like "The Man with Two Brains," "All of Me," "Summer Rental," "Summer School" and "Bert Rigby, You're a Fool." He's seen here (left) with his son, fellow actor and director Rob Reiner.

1922: The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier. The ship was converted from the collier USS Jupiter and also was the Navy's first electrically propelled ship.

1916: Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, is published as an academic paper titled "Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Relativitästheorie" in the physics journal Annalen der Physik. This theory explains gravitation as distortion of the structure of spacetime by matter, affecting the inertial motion of other matter. It also accounted for the slow rotation of the elliptical path of the planet Mercury, which Newtonian gravitational theory failed to do.

1906: Ozzie Nelson, the bandleader and actor who originated and starred in "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" radio and television series with his family, is born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He's seen here at front with his wife, Harriet, and his two sons, David (top) and Ricky (right), in a 1952 publicity photo. Nelson died of liver cancer at the age of 69 on June 3, 1975.

1904: Burrhus Frederic "B. F." Skinner, the psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber, also known as the Skinner Box, and his own philosophy of science called radical behaviorism, is born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He died of leukemia at age 86 on Aug. 18, 1990.

1854: The Republican Party of the United States is organized at a school house in Ripon, Wisconsin.

1828: Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian author whose major works include the plays "Peer Gynt," "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "Hedda Gabler," "The Wild Duck" and "Rosmersholm," is born in Skien, Norway. He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare and "A Doll's House" is often cited as the world's most performed play.

1815: After escaping from exile on the island of Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.

1760: The "Great Fire" of Boston, Massachusetts, consumes shops and homes along King and Congress streets and continues down to the wharves, where 10 ships were left in ashes. More than 300 buildings were destroyed in the blaze, the worst to strike a colonial American city.

1616: Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment for allegedly being involved in a plot against King James I. Released in order to conduct a second expedition to Venezuela in search of El Dorado, his reprieve would be short lived. Upon returning to England, he was imprisoned at the behest of Spain over an attack his men made on a Spanish outpost during the expedition. Raleigh was beheaded on Oct. 29, 1618.

1413: Henry V ascends to the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry IV. Henry rapidly assumed control of the country and embarked on war with France. From an unassuming start, his military successes in the Hundred Years' War, culminating with his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt, saw him come close to conquering France.

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